Mukesh Ambani Reclaims His Spot As Asia’s Richest Man After Facebook Deal

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, has replaced Jach Ma as Asia’s richest man after his recent deal with Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly invested in $5.7 million (Rs 43,574 crore) in Jio Platforms for a 9.99% stake.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported that the Indian billionaire has reclaimed the top spot in Asia’s billionaire ranking list from Jack Ma, Alibaba Group’s founder.

After the deal, Ambani’s fortune rose to $49.2 billion, which makes Ambani around $3.2 billion ahead of Jack Ma.

In a web video that was posted on the official Facebook page of Jio, Ambani announced the partnership between Reliance Jio and Facebook. He also added that Facebook’s brands were some of the names that had been familiar with Indian users. In particular, WhatsApp is a prime example. The app is available in 23 languages of India.

Live Mint stated that with this partnership, Zuckerberg could boost his expansion in the country. India is rapidly embracing e-commerce and online payment as the country has been witnessing an increase in the use of smartphones. At the same time, Jio has been dominating the market by offering free plans and lower prices than its rivals.

Jio’s ambition is that by March 2021, it will become net debt-free. The infusion of the social media giant in Jio platforms is the country’s largest foreign direct investment minority investment. During the 2019’s December quarter, the total net debt of IRL was Rs 1.53 lakh crore.

>>> Facebook Invests $5.7 Billion In Jio Platforms, Ready To Take On TikTok